The Battle of Vellinghausen

The Battle of Vellinghausen, 15 July 1761
French vs. Hesso-British

Background

This game was played in my basement on June 19th, 2010, between myself as the Hesso-British and Matt Kachur as the French.

You can read a historical account of the battle here, at British Battles.

The game rules were Old Dessauer. The game lasted about three hours, excluding one hour for setup. We had no formal victory conditions; the French would win if it became obvious that the British could not hold their position.

The figures were 15mm size. All belonged to Matt's impressive collection. They were mostly Old Glory and Minifigs, with a few Essex units.

The game was a French victory after about 12 turns.

The Game-Table
Transliterated from the British Battles site above.
Some marginal terrain features and towns were excluded from the game.

Summary of the Game

Using the map above, we set out the troops using one 12-figure unit to represent each brigade on the map. This gave 17 Hesso-British battalions (4 elite, all on the hill near Vellinghausen), 1 cuirassier regiment, 3 dragoon regiments, plus 4 batteries for the British. Matt insisted on throwing in his hessian jaegers as well. We left Sporken out of the game.

The French had 28 battalions (2 elite, in the center), 2 heavy cavalry regiments, 2 light cavalry regiments, 2 dragoon regiments, plus 4 artillery batteries. Historically much of the French army in the center never took part due to the emotional problems between Soubise and Broglie. But we decided to see how it would have gone had the French generals not been a pair of asses.

I set up according to the map. Matt followed suit, but kept his far left-flank units back below Werle.

The game began with Matt advancing slowly in the center and on his right. I pushed my cavalry and infantry forward on my right, taking Werle. The Scots Greys and Hesisan dragoons swept around Werle, crushing the two French hussar units opposing them and galloping into the French rear. This was the best action for the British all day. The Greys destroyed three French cavalry units before a regiment of Household Cavalry finally did them in.

In the center Matt made little headway against the British artillery and infantry fire. He turned two of his battalions to work their way through the central woods. This threatened the right flank of the Hessians on Vellinghausen Hill with galling flank fire. The Ahse River was crossable only at the bridges. But the long-rang musketry from these units would make it impossible for the allies to maintain their line of battle.

On his left Matt pushed his columns steadily forward. My capture of Werle held him up for several turns. In the rules you cannot move a unit within one inch of the enemy unless retreating or making an attack. This meant he could not march past Werle using the road. Eventually however I made a voluntary retreat from Werle to save my precious battalion and he was able to continue. At the end of the game he had outflanked me and I was forced to put most of that side of the game table into voluntary retreat. This created so many shaken units that it broke my army morale and the British skeedaddled. Had they stayed, it seemed obvious the French would take the final bridge across the Ahse and bag half the allied army.

On the French right the Vellinghausen Hill held out pretty well. But Matt made good use of his firepower. He was able to bring a "ring of fire" to bear on the British elites. Despite heavy losses, and being forced to make a couple of "gambit charges" to disrupt the British artillery, he had forced the defenders back from the hillside and was ready to capture Vellinghausen when the game ended.

setup Panorama of the game table
Stream sections by WizardKraft. Bridges scratch-built by Rick Ferens. Hills and houses home-made.